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for satisfying those desires, oftentimes impatient to receive instant gratification rather thanpatiently waiting for their needs and desires to be fulfilled. Implicitly, then, Hobbes promoteschoosing a sovereign to maintain order in a commonwealth because without a commonwealth ora civil government, participants in the state of nature will always be prone to yielding to thetemptation to make decisions based on what fulfills their individual needs and wants rather thanacting selflessly and choosing what best accommodates the necessities of the majority ofcitizens. The state of nature, therefore, is less democratic and more focused on the individualthan what commonwealths in which all people are politically equal and deserve consideration oftheir wants and needs individually and collectively. Gordon summarizes the struggle individualsface between choosing to follow the state of nature and deciding to live in a commonwealth thatinvolves electing and obeying a sovereign. He writes:Confronted with ideologies that require individuals to reject selfish and choosedisinterested behaviors, Hobbes insists that 'till it please God to give men anextraordinary, and supernaturall grace', we will always choose what we imagine willbenefit ourselves. Each individual, Hobbes contends, is little more than a 'Tennis-Ball,'controlled rather than controlling, ceaselessly batted about by desires and interests. (54)Libertines, of course, choose self-indulgent behaviors-those that presumably resemble actscommitted in the state of nature-over behaving selflessly and taking their fellow citizens andtheir interests into consideration-those that more closely mimic acts of those participating in acommonwealth. As mentioned previously, in Shadwell's The Libertine, Don John revels incommitting crimes, especially rape, and his actions are motivated by selfishness and blindobedience to instincts-similar to those who live in the anarchic state of nature.Don John's shamelessness and self-centeredness manifest themselves in a rape hecommits in front of his libertine counterparts. In fact, Don John even admits he has no qualmsabout raping an elderly woman on the street simply because he is able to do so and knows that